Psychology Program

1970's - Prior to the Psychology Program

St. Mary's originally offered a Human Development major within the Human Development division of academics. The curriculum embodied a "60's mentality where higher education wanted to abandon most requirements and regulations and basically provide integrative learning" (Dr. Glidden). One problem with this division structure was that the numerous disciplines were thought to take attention away from psychology. Depending on the division head and their discipline, there was a potential for funding to be affected. The Human Development major incorporated several different disciplines, including philosophy, psychology, education, religious studies and physical education courses (St. Mary's College of Maryland Course Catalog of 1991-1992). Students interested in psychology, rather than the other disciplines, followed a psychology curriculum within the Human Development major even though they did not receive a degree in psychology.

The psychology courses were taught by two male professors and two female professors. Due to this low number of faculty, these four professors had to be ready and willing to teach all subject areas within psychology (Dr. Glidden). This meant that it was necessary to have a broader understanding of the subject. They needed to be prepared to leave their comfort zone or area of expertise. Dr. Glidden mentioned that this was beneficial in some ways, but harmful in other ways. The professors had less time for their specialization of interest because they were busy learning about other disciplines in order to adequately teach all areas. When psychology was under the Human Development division, there were only 12 courses offered.

1980's - Founding of the Psychology Program

The psychology major was created in 1985-1986 by Dr. Laraine Glidden, Dr. Wes Jordan, Dr. Roy Hopkins and Dr. David Finkelman. The foundation of the psychology program as a whole was established in 1986 (Glidden, 2018; Jordan, 2018). Dr. Laraine Glidden joined the faculty at St. Mary's in the year 1976, working as a developmental psychologist with a concentration in cognitive development. Dr. Roy Hopkins arrived at St. Mary's in 1980 as a second developmental psychologist. In 1981, Dr. David Finkelman joined the St. Mary's faculty, working as a clinical psychologist (Finkelman, 2018). A year later, Dr. Wes Jordan joined the faculty as a behavioral neuroscientist. Dr. Jordan was the first experimentally oriented psychologist at St. Mary's. The demographics of the psychology department, including the student body, were originally estimated to be 60/40. In other words, the field was made up of 60% females and 40% males (Dr. Jordan, 2018).

In the early 80s Dr. Hopkins was the only professor for the Intro to Psychology classes. These classes would meet twice a week for lecture in Kent Hall and once for discussion group. Because it was the only class, it would often be packed and even once had about 100 students enrolled in it. The Intro class also required students to attend a discussion portion of the class that would meet on Wednesdays. In order to maximize an effective discussion group, Hopkins broke down the discussions sections into 5 different classes which would be scheduled throughout the day. In attempts to assist the workload of Hopkins being the only professor, upperclass called the Introductory Psychology Assistant Section System (IPASS), would help lead the many discussion groups.

In 1984-1985, the last year without the psychology major, there were only 11 courses offered. However, in 1985-1986, once the psychology major had been created, there were 18 courses offered. Psychology in law was an added course, which became very popular according to Dr. Finkelman (2018). It covered material such as eye witness testimonies, the insanity defense, psychology of the jury, the poly graph, custody claims, and confidentiality, especially related to therapy. There were 6 professors in the psychology program during this time. Dr. Glidden, Dr. Jordan, Dr. Hopkins, and Dr. Finkleman were joined by Dr. Carol Geeson, and Dr. Phillip Keen.

The departmental relationships were positive and collaborative. There existed a great deal of intermingling between disciplines (Jordan, 2018). Faculty members originally chose their desired office space and location based on seniority. Due to this system, conversation and mingling within the department was encouraged. In addition, faculty would travel and go on retreats together in order to establish solid relationships.

1990 to 2000 - Expansion within the Psychology Program

In the early 1990's, the psychology department adopted four additional 200 level courses. These were created in order to promote content breadth, starting at the beginning of the major. Prior to this, there was only one 200 level content breadth class and breadth was experienced primarily within the upper level courses (Platt, 2018).

In 1992, following the expansion of content courses, the first St. Mary's Project group in psychology was created. This served as a trial group and was advised by Dr. Roy Hopkins. This first group consisted of six students. This experimental phase was utilized in order to determine if SMPs should be made available to all students. Although disagreements within the psychology program didn't arise often, one recurring issue is the existence of senior seminar in replacement of a St. Mary's Project. This has remained a topic of conversation for several years (Hopkins, 2018; Finkelman, 2018).

As the years went on, the psychology major requirements continued to evolve. In 1993-1994, the curriculum of the major changed to become more research focused. The students were required to take two additional laboratory courses. The original laboratory class was called "Experimental Psychology". After the addition of the new requirements, courses were expanded to include specific types of experimental psychology. For example, cognitive psychology and physiological psychology were added to the course catalog. In the late 90's, courses experienced further change. Specifically, the two credit "Writing in Psychology" course was modified to a four credit "Writing and Research Methods" course. The class was changed in order to be more comprehensible and less abstract (Platt, 2018).

When Dr. Williams entered the psychology department in 1997, she taught courses such as Abnormal Psychology and Personality Psychology. Although Personality Psychology is no longer offered at St. Mary's, students continue to enroll in Abnormal Psychology . A separate course that no longer exists is Field Experiences and Internships. This evolved into Service Learning in Psychology . Currently, Dr. Williams teaches Counseling and Psychotherapy with Laboratory. This class was proposed by her, was unanimously accepted, and went through curriculum review (Williams, 2018). Among all of the changes to the psychology major, beneficial additions were established to other areas of the academic disciplines at St. Mary's.

In the mid 90's, Dr. Jordan began the development of the neuroscience minor. It was documented to take about three to four years to create the cross-disciplinary minor. At the time, the majority of students who enrolled in the minor were particularly oriented to research. This allowed Dr. Jordan to become involved in interesting research topics with undergraduate students at St. Mary's.

2000 to 2010 - Evolution of SMPs

Dr. Williams recalled that when she was department chair in 2006 and 2007, the department had a vote to determine whether the St. Mary's Project would continue as a requirement. As chair she didn't find it appropriate to vote, but ultimately the St. Mary's project was dropped as a requirement by a single vote. She remembered that this was quite controversial because a massive change was made to the major over one vote (Williams, 2018).

2010 to 2018 - Reconstructing the Major

After an external review in 2010, the psychology department decided to restructure the major. Before the restructuring, the major was divided into two areas, content area A and content area B. Content area A contained classes in the more applied side of psychology, while content area B was made up of classes relating more to neuroscience. This divide is no longer present in the current iteration of the major (Williams, 2018).